NEW YORK — The rug really did tie the room together. And the Dude was pleased.

We were outside the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City for the cast reunion of "The Big Lebowski" on Tuesday — partly in celebration of the film's Blu-ray release, partly because 13 years after its theatrical debut, fans still can't get enough of Jeff Bridges' cult comedy — and the ground was adorned, in lieu of the standard red carpeting, with a fancy runner calling to mind the peed-upon Persian rug that sets the film's entire plot in motion. Between that carpet, the opportunity once again to hang out with his old castmates and the sight of so many fans dressed up like their favorite characters, Bridges was having a grand old time.

"They're so deeply into that movie, which is so wonderful," he told MTV News of those fans. "I don't have any fans quite as strong as the 'Lebowski' fans."

His co-stars, it turned out, are pretty big supporters themselves. "He worked so hard on this, and you could never know it by looking at the film," John Goodman said about Bridges. "He made it look effortless. People ask me all the time if we improvised anything. That's just how he made it look — very graceful."

Julianne Moore's experience on "Lebowski," at least physically, was far from graceful, but she credits Bridges with helping her through the shoot. "I was pregnant, so I was sick most of the time," she recalled. "I remember how patient Jeff was and how funny and how artistic he is, all the pictures he took. He was always playing guitar in his trailer. He was an amazing guy."

Moore's pregnancy wasn't the only one that factored into "Lebowski." As fans of the film will recall, Moore's character, the intensely odd Maude, sneakily beds the Dude in order to make him the father of her child. And while all that talk of a sequel will likely never come to fruition — the cast, as if of one mind, dismissed the idea of future "Lebowski" films — Bridges and Moore have some ideas about what has happened to the child since the conclusion of the original movie.

Moore thinks the kid wound up in boarding school. But Bridges has a different notion, based on another film from his past. "Ooh, I just had a flash!" he laughed. "Maybe he hooks up with the Starman's child. Ooooh, huh? And they get together in sort of a Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid thing, man!"

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